10 Answers

I’m in a tech school right now, but about taking the SAT’s thats all about what major your in. For example: I’m in Culinary Arts, so I have no reason to take the SAT’s, thats what my instructors have told me.

Most schools here in America require you to take the SATs (although there are some schools in the Midwest that prefer the ACTs). Yes the SATs do matter. Most reputable schools accept students only if they have a certain score range or above. The collegeboard has some good information about the Average SAT scores for colleges.

A decent SAT score is around 1500 (out of 2400). Ivy Leagues require a score of above 2100 and require the SAT IIs. And you should take it no matter what you choose your career. Whether you major in art or tech , they all require the SATs . Most tech schools however prefer a higher math score.

If you haven’t already registered, my advice would be go register for the May SATs. I think the deadline has passed but you can pay the $10 late fine and register now because you can get your scores by June and take it again in September if you have to. Remember even if you do really bad, you can always take it again and colleges only take the best scores.

Also focus more on the reading and the math. Most schools (except the elite) do not pay that much attention to the writing part . And don’t stress about your career choice now. You have your whole life ahead of you to decide. Right now focus more on searching for colleges you like and getting into that college.

@mirza: Many elite colleges and trade schools don’t require the SAT at all.

Look at the schools you’re interested in. Do they require it? Most schools make statistics on their incoming freshmen in areas of SAT, class standing, and GPA available; ask your guidance counselor or college counselor to look it up or show you where to find that information. That will give you a much better idea.

@cwilbur: i know you are older than me and everything, but you are definitely wrong on this. The Ivy Leagues are the schools that stress on standardized testing the most. Just look at the stats for some of these schools and you’ll find out about 98% of the people who go to these schools submit their SAT scores (if you don’t take my word on it, go to collegeboard.com and search for any top notch school). Most elite schools aren’t even satisfied with the regular SATs. (e.g. my friend who has no.3 in my graduating class and had a 2310 on her SATs got rejected from UCLA just because she never took the SAT IIs)

The story is different however for Trade Schools. Most trade schools accept students with just a GED.

@mirza: note my wording, please. Are you going to claim that Mount Holyoke, Bowdoin, and Bates are not elite schools? Or that they require the SATs? Or that the Ivy League (which is an athletic conference, like the Big Ten) are the only elite schools?

(I misspoke when I said many—there was a fad a few years back to drop them, or make them optional, but it seems that many schools went back to them.)

I agree that they are good schools and when I said elite schools, i was talking about the Top 50 colleges in america. The schools you mentioned are really good schools (and elite if you focus on liberal arts alone) and having the SATs definitely increases your chance of getting into these schools even though its not absolutely required. Also just because a school doesnt “require” you to submit the score, they are still extremely picky about admissions and tend to favor student who have more credentials. (for example, bowdoin has one of the lowest acceptance rates – around 18 percent—76 percent of incoming student sumbitted their SATs with a median score of 2000)